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It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Why is it the most wonderful time of the year?

Well, among other reasons, because individual tempo-free numbers are up at KenPom!

It's obviously still very early--with just 400 minutes of basketball under the belts of the 2009-10 Spartan basketball team (and only 120 of those against BCS-conference-level competition)--so the numbers are still what economists would call "advance."  But, hey, they're new numbers.  So we must analyze them.

Player bullets after the jump (explanation of individual tempo-free numbers is here):

  • Kalin Lucas' shooting numbers are looking pretty spiffy: .557/.429/.756.  Having more offensive options on the floor this season may be helping boost his 2-point shooting percentage, as he doesn't have to try to manufacture shots late in the shot clock as often as he did last season.  His assist rate is down a bit (even more so compared to where it was during nonconference play last season), a function of playing at the 2-guard spot alongside Lucious more often.
  • Draymond Green ranks in the top 500 nationally in 7 different tempo-free categories.  But we've already waxed poetic on his efficiency.
  • Durrell Summers is the only player among the top 7 Spartans (by minutes played) with an offensive rating below 114.  His stands at just 95.9.  His 2-point (.492) and free throw (.840) percentages are pretty solid, though.  Three-point shooting (.240), offensive rebounding (4.9), and turnovers (23.3) are the areas that need to improve.
  • Raymar Morgan's numbers are pretty good considering the injury issues early on: offensive rating of 114.8, contributing on the boards (10.4/16.6), steal rate at 2.8.  It's all about finding some level of consistency: 4 games with 16+ points, 3 with 4 points or fewer.
  • Derrick Nix is sporting a stellar offensive rebounding percentage of 20.0 and a nice block rate of 6.0 in his limited minutes.  I don't think I need to mention what his statistical weakness is, do I?
  • Chris Allen is a "role player"?  His Shot% is down from 28.4 last season to 22.0 this season.  The upside is he's shooting a very efficient .647 from 2-point range and an acceptable .364 from beyond the arc.  The downside is he's completely disappeared against good compeititon: total of 14 points vs. Gonzaga/Florida/UNC.
  • Delvon Roe's got some nice numbers for a guy who went scoreless in his first two (concussion-affected) games: top 150 in both offensive/defensive rebounding percentage, as well as block percentage, and a .604 two-point shooting percentage.
  • Korie Lucious is doing exactly what he needs to do from a statistical standpoint: distributing the ball with frequency (assist rate of 32.1) and keeping the turnovers down (TO% of 17.8, way down from last year's 32.0).
  • Austin Thornton is turning the ball over (26.2) and fouling too much (10.0 fouls created per 40 minutes) when he gets on the floor.
  • Garrick Sherman's numbers are decent (2pt% of .542, OffReb% of 13.9), especially considering a fairly high percentage of his minutes have come at the starts of games.
  • Isaiah Dahlman is leading the team in offensive rating at 135.8 (hitting 3 of 6 three-point attempts).  But he still doesn't find a way to get involved in the offense with regularity when he's on the floor: usage rate of 11.8.

We'll leave off there and take a look at some of the team-level numbers later this week.  It's never good to open all your present at once, right?